My statistic professor at a community college told me of the Phd research of her colleague back in the early 90s. He was trying to come up with a correlation between sets of data in hopes of explaining why some S&Ls had gone bankrupt in the 1980s while other S&Ls remained profitable. Everything he analyzed, whether is be demographics, employee to customer ratio, etc., did not yield any significant correlation. Finally, he focused on the bios of the CEOs runniing the S&Ls. Bingo. A strong correlation showed that graduates of private universities more often ran their S&Ls into bankruptcy while graduates of public universities managed S&Ls, which remained solvent.

He double checked the data, and was perplexed. Finally, while brainstorming with other colleagues about the results, he came to a conclusion. CEOs who had studied at private universities usually had mom and dad foot the bill and where probably getting an allowance. Those who had studied at public unversities generally had to pay their own way and worked jobs to finance everything. One group never learned to manage money properly. The other group became excellent stewards of finance. Fast forward 20 - 30 years as these people got into positions of authority at S&Ls, and the results are evident.

10:48 am February 10, 2014

RBM wrote:

We have 5 children, 4 of whom are now out of college. Here are a couple of tips we picked up along the way. First, expect them to work at their academics. If they are "A" students, let them know you expect at least a "B." Otherwise tell them they need to pay for that course themselves. And make them take loans to do it. You can always pay off the loan later if you have the means and they have turned their academics around. This is similar to how many companies reimburse employees for education. We've done this with our children and they seem to better understand that there is real money involved. And when those loans do come due, let them struggle with the payments for a bit even if you have the means. They get alot more appreciative of the sacrifices you've made.

Second, have them pay for their own books out of pocket. You will be surprised at how much more practical they are about how they use their own money. Again, you can always step in and help them out later if they run short and you have the means to help them.

11:23 am February 10, 2014

The goose wrote:

We raised three boys...every day they saw the old man leave early in the morning and come back in the early evening from a steady job. Then Mom went back to work as well. Think that doesn't rub off? We also stressed that we expected them to get their degrees in disciplines that would provide them with a real job when they got out...They all turned out to be engineers, like their old man. We said they were in a partnership dedicated to seeing them succeed (responsible parents, their schools and themselves...but everyone had to do their part). They worked during the summers, first at grunt work, then at internships during college. We made it abundantly clear that they had to take full personal responsibility for their life outcomes (good grades, get out on time, control themselves, stay out of trouble, get a decent job, etc), and that we'd do our part to support them. We said we'd provide enough money for them to go to college at our in-state Big Ten school while living at home. If they wanted more (go out-of-state, private college, etc), it was up to them to come up with the difference (dorm duty, scholarships, additional work during the school year). But the clincher was that we incentivized things a bit...we said there was this pot of money, equally divided, dedicated to getting each of them through school. If it turned out they could get through without spending it all, what was left was theirs to keep once they graduated. Happily, this worked. All three graduated with no student debt and a little kicker on which to get started. They all did well in demanding academic disciplines and got good jobs right out of school because of their strong work ethic developed from high school on. Offered for what it's worth...

11:26 am February 10, 2014

MKS wrote:

My kid is an architecure student. After his last class ends at 5 p.m. he hits the architecture studio and rarely leaves before midnight and every few weeks is there until 1 and 2 a.m. That's 5 days a week. On the weekend he puts in anywhere from 6 to 12 hours EVERY Saturday & Sunday. His job is to make it through. He maintains an $8-10,000 tuition reduction for good grades. THAT'S his job---to keep that reduction.e doesn't need a job nor does he have time for one. His fellow students work the same way. Not EVERY kid needs to work.

12:47 pm February 10, 2014

R Richard wrote:

MKS,

I applaud you for your dedication to your son's academic goals and refusing to place arbitrary impositions on him in the name of "skin in the gam". I was one of thsoe kids who had to work 20+ hours in both undergrad and graduate school. While there are people who are able to maintain high grades, I was only able to maintain a 3.2 because of the demands of my jobs, academics, and family dynamics. I have had to work twice as hard to get half as far as my peers who all had the support of their parents who were college educated. At 30+, I am now in a place where I can choose a "new" major, something I've always wanted to do, but never had the means, freedom, or support to accomplish. In addition, I was a first generation student who had very little advisement on which majors to choose and came from a family where ANY college degree was acceptable. We know in the real world that this is not so. But it is extremely hard as a first generation to tell family that. I have persevered, but I say all of that to say it makes absolutely no sense to put the kid through unnecessary hurdles unnecessarily. Thank you for supporting your son.

1:05 pm February 10, 2014

R Richard wrote:

Excuse my spelling errors....typing on a smart phone.

1:42 pm February 10, 2014

Carol R. wrote:

My three daughters each signed a contract that they would maintain certain GPAs, were responsible for their spending money by holding jobs during the summer, etc. The contract also stated that a live in boyfriend voided said contract to assist them with school. Pregnancy also voided contract and they would be expected to get a job to support such child. All made it through and were surprised at how many of their friends didn't have to contribute anything or had boyfriends live in on daddy's dime.

2:20 pm February 10, 2014

Sammie Sawee wrote:

I think Mitt Romney did it the correct way. When he needed to raise money for tuition, he just sold some of his stock portfolio.

Why can't 18 years olds be as responsible now a days?

2:21 pm February 10, 2014

Laughing wrote:

" I apologize in advance if I come across as harsh, but I am quiet passionate on this topic. "

If you are trying to make an effective point by seeming intellectually superior, please don't make spelling errors in your column. I mean don't you people have editors? "quite" embarrassing.

2:44 pm February 10, 2014

Robbie wrote:

Amen!!! There are entirely too many 24 year olds with 4 year degrees that have never worked a day in their lives. My parents decided not to help pay for my education because they thought it would teach me independence. At the time, I resented them for it, especially since I had to report their income on all of the need-based financial aid applications and their income was too high for me to obtain any need-based aid. I'm now 28 and have been out of school for about 5 years. Their approach would be considered harsh by almost anyone today, but I am so grateful for what they did. While my peers had an easy time in college, they never developed a real work ethic or financial management skills. Aside from learning to work hard, get along with coworkers, manage time, and manage money, I had real tangible job skills to compliment my degree, which makes getting a job infinitely easier than it would be if I had only gone away with a generic 4 year degree.

I am 28, and I wholeheartedly believe that my entire generation has been spoiled by their parents to the point of being completely useless individuals. Kids today don't need help with college. They need the life skills that only come from experience.

2:46 pm February 10, 2014

Max Homerding wrote:

I think the title of the story is misleading.

Especially how it defines what work is.

Working to pay for college is much different than Internships and community service. Also studying is real work. It is hours of reading, writing, and figuring out problems. It is not cracking concrete with a sledgehammer all day but it is real work. What you learn in college is what makes you employable.
As for working to a pay for college, it is incredibly important that students do not work during the freshman and sophomore years as these are the foundational years of relationships and base knowledge. Note that most college dropouts happen during freshman and sophomore years. This happens due to students being unprepared for college level work, money, or just plain maturity level. They need an environment where they are worried about academics and not if they are going to be evicted.

As for types of work, internships and community service are educational or feel good in nature. They are often incorporated in many students’ lives to gain an edge but are not necessary for survival i.e. paying rent, tuition….

Should your child have scholarships to go to college but make them work to make up any other monies, they run the risk of having lower grades which loses those scholarships as well as reduced academic hours because of lack of time which delays graduation and costs potential wages.

The basic premise of the article is that you should teach your kids the value of a dollar. However doing this after their 18 when most of their personality is already set doesn’t make sense. If you raised someone who is spoiled, arrogant, and entitled then you are already too late. However if you put the hours in as a parent and raise someone you feel will be a good citizen to begin with then the you should help as much as you can with making sure they are able to finish their education so they can start their life not in debt.

In my personal experience, during my undergrad I had to work to pay for college on top of my student loans to get by. Working 35 to 40 hours a week at minimum wage while taking 18 hours of credit is extremely brutal and in the end my grades suffered and it took me longer to graduate. However after graduation I got a great job and it paid well. Later on I went on to get an MBA. I didn’t work unless it was an internship, and as a result my grades were great and graduated with no issues. I found that having enough time to study and not be stressed out on whether I had enough money to buy food made a huge difference in my academic performance.

Just to reiterate, if you trying to modify behavior while you child is in their 20s then you are probably too late. The best thing to do would try to get them through school as quickly as possible and set them up for success. Should they make mistakes, at least they will have a job to pay for it and what they do with that money they do make really isn’t a parent’s business anymore.

3:02 pm February 10, 2014

R Richard wrote:

Max,

If you have kids, they are lucky to have you as a father. You and MKS have the right idea.

As an aside, I am now pursuing my dream of becoming an MD now that I have a supportive husband and a team of managers who value my work ethic enough to grant a work sabatical. It goes without saying that I wish I could have done this earlier. I think people take support for granted and/or want others to suffer because they suffered. I didn't know very many bio majors who were successful getting into medical school working the equivalent of full time jobs, at least not right away. We have become a hard society that punishes for the sake of punishment or who want the good to suffer for the mistakes of others who have squandered opportunities. It is awful.

3:06 pm February 10, 2014

The goose wrote:

To Carol R. Love the part about pregnancy nullifying the contracts and the prospect of the girls having to support the child(ren) on their own! That puts the rules of personal responsibility in the clearest terms. Hope my sons who have kids (4 grand daughters among them) get that point across to their girls.

I teach in a community college and see the struggles of young women who hooked up with some stray, got pregnant and now have an uphill row to hoe because said loser (e.g. live-in moocher) bailed out on them. The girls also have to take some responsibility to look ahead and think of both their own welfare and that of the child (as was the case with your daughters). This may be a third rail issue, but single motherhood before a girl is ready or prepared is a sentence for both them and their child(ren). I had three simple rules for my boys: #1 - No cops under any circumstances; #2 - Nobody gets hurt because of your actions...that included out-of-wedlock pregnancy; and #3 - You're going to make mistakes...don't make the kind that cost you a lot of time or me big money. You violate any of the rules (and generally if you violate one, you're in violation of one or more of the others), then house is going to fall in on you. We stressed that they should first get their educations, then get a decent job and then take on family responsibilities (marriage and kids). It worked apparently.

3:44 pm February 10, 2014

H Silk wrote:

Lets stop telling every kid that they have to go to college. All kids need some form of education, true, but for a of of kids a good vocational school is appropriate. College should be for those professions that require an academic degree and the kids that are enrolled should be prepared to do the work. They also should not have to work during the school year outside of their academics which is work enough. It would also help if employers would quit requiring degrees for jobs where they've never been necessary.

3:45 pm February 10, 2014

Allennyc wrote:

I think her column sounds good in theory. In practice? Not so much.When I was in college, I worked for 2 summers at a utility company painting and doing grounds work with 3 other college kids who were stoned most of the day. What did I learn? It's better to have money than not. (And I actually knew that already!) Many of the kids with jobs at college managed to procure ones which allowed them to do their homework while getting paid. No grunt work for them; no learning responsibility. It wasn't too hard for them to earn a dollar, unlike what the author believes. THe real-world understanding they acquired was, unfortunately, how to game the system. Not very noble.
I think the reinforcing message to college students is to get as much out of their education as possible. THey're there to learn and be participate in a vibrant community. Do things that you'll be proud and excited to discuss during your job interviews. Take advantage of every single day you're there.

3:56 pm February 10, 2014

Reality wrote:

I think the reality many parents have to face is that if you are not paying most of your kids tuition, and for whatever reason your kids attend college for 3-6 Years on loans and end up not getting a degree they are essentially financially doomed for the next 15 years and far worse off than if they had never gone, and they don't have the luxury of Bankruptcy Protection. So in truth Work Experience, Internships, sports, ect. are all well and good, but the absolute most important part of college is getting that piece of paper, if you don't your screwed. If your paying your own way graduating is everything, all else is an afterthought if that doesn't happen, and college is not for everyone, its better to find out sooner than later.

4:07 pm February 10, 2014

DanP wrote:

I find this slightly comical to read through. As someone who worked my way through school (and still has a great amount of debt to show for it), I find it offensive that the purpose of working during school is a means to teach you child a "life lesson". Guess what? It means very little if there is a parental safety net provided. Reality for MOST of us is that we didn't have a choice. My parents gave me $0 to go to school. I worked full-time, went to school full-time, and still managed extra-curricular achievements that most never even tried. My life lesson from this: There are those that are born on 3rd base and those that actually can put a 3-2 fastball in the gap for a triple of their own. While one path might be easier, I can tell you that working from the ground-up is much more rewarding (and educational). Glad that some are priveledged to find time for a :job" that teaches them how to dress for a job or show up on time. In the meantime the rest of us will worry about how to grow our careers (and bank accounts) from scratch, while still forking it over to Sallie Mae every month.

4:19 pm February 10, 2014

conflicted wrote:

I worked full time/or had a business summers from 7th grade on pretty much paid for my state school education. (Sorry "today kids" it took a lot fewer work hours to pay for school then.) My wife just had to worry about school and got a full ride to one of the top private schools in the country. I think hers was the bettter path.

4:38 pm February 10, 2014

What did you do? wrote:

Curiously enough, Michelle Perry Higgins convienently excluded how she was financially empowered during her own collegiate years. Well, if you're going to provide advice to others it would be beneficial if you first explained to the public at large what impact the very same advice had on your own experiences.

4:44 pm February 10, 2014

JimS wrote:

I agree that an internship or other work experience during college, in particular during the summer, can be very beneficial. But the value seems to be principally in enabling the student to apply their chosen field of study in the work force. Lessons learned can let them tailor their course selections to particular fields or specialties that might interest them, or even dissuade them altogether from a certian major or, at later phases, graduate-level study. You can even add a sense of earning to the mix by not giving your student a "free ride," but rather paying them to participate in the (let's face, increasingly frequently unpaid) high quality internship and viewing supporting their course of study as "doing their job" at that phase in their lives.
Because let's be brutally honest with ourselves. College level study with good internships/ work experience is the ticket to graduate study and solid entry level positions in good fields, and the competition for those slots is only going to get fiercer, in an increasingly globalized economy. Hiring managers and professional school admissions officers aren't typically going to look past the grades and direclty relevant work experience to whether the student paid for it themselves or learned some valuable life lesson or "appreciation for the cost of their education." Or not listing the open job in the first place because they look to their in-house pool of interns first. In a world of fierce tiger cubs, we shouldn't be surprised that parents opt to maximize their students' competitive advantage, at whatever cost necessary.

5:01 pm February 10, 2014

Anonymous wrote:

It depends on the kid. Some kids are self motivated and have commen sense, some don't. Depending on who has what some kid will benefit from knowing the value of hard work through a side job, some already know it already and will be better served focusing on classes.

8:08 pm February 10, 2014

Megan-Future Educator wrote:

I am currently a senior in high school, about to attend college in August. I have been self-motivated throughout my entire school career, and I believe I have worked hard to be accepted into every school I've applied to. I've also worked 40+ hours a week every year during my community's tourist season. Currently, I am eligible for full ride at one of my top schools. Does this mean I will be getting a completely painless, devoid-of-reality "free ride" for four years as this author suggests? No: my impending scholarship is contingent on my success in that school's Honors Program and Teaching Fellows Program, which consist of a couple of internships. I think this author is raising the apathy of us Millennials to a ridiculously high level. To all the Baby Boomers out there: we were raised by you, and you all were raised by those from WWII and the Depression era. We know the value of a dollar, the power of education, and, believe it or not, most of us know what hard work looks like and we aren't afraid of it. Please stop devaluing us as lazy good-for-nothings who would rather watch the E! network than work for a living.

9:40 pm February 10, 2014

JCL wrote:

After a lengthy career in business I became a college teacher a dozen years ago. My comments are based on academic advising sessions involving perhaps 150 to 180 students during that time. Sometimes, students would not have completed the courses they needed, and explained dropping out because the course bored them or they didn't see its relevance. Most of these students had not dropped the course in time to receive at least a partial tuition refund. I won't speculate how many students behaved like this, but I can tell you that those who did had no idea of the cost of their actions. They paid nothing because, presumably, the parents paid it all. Too many students are on the five-year plan, because they are not focused on their studies and, just a guess here, they blame poor advising on the extra semester or two that adds several thousands dollars to their degree.

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